New VISI site is well received

VISI magazine, published by New Media Publishing on behalf of Media 24, is an award-winning publication that has been pushing the edge and bringing originality to the South African design, décor and architecture markets since 1998. But in a time where content is no longer exclusively created by editorial teams, NATIVE created an online masterpiece that invites readers to participate on www.visi.co.za and to download the I-Phone Application, http://bit.ly/iGtGQt.

The idea originated by 140BBDO, centred on the notion of "Covet", and translated into an invitation to VISI's readers to share the objects, designs and environments that they covet.

The online translation of this resulted in the development of a groundbreaking design social network. The interface demanded a contemporary and visually arresting design that encompassed a progressive fluid-layout design which displayed a rich stream of content.

"We embarked on a journey to breathe new life into the VISI brand and naturally wanted to extend this digitally as well as bringing some unique elements that would set the brand apart," says Jacqueline Myburgh Chemaly, Editor: VISI.

Adam Whitehouse, NATIVE's Executive Creative Director: Design, says it was a fascinating project from the word go and the NATIVE team were eager to make a bold statement on the new VISI site. "The original VISI site had become outdated and had no real sense of community. It just wasn't delivering the unique user experience that the magazine offers."

For the site to truly step into a new age, it had to present intriguing online content, encourage exploration and sharing of the various editorial and user-generated layers.

"We started with the idea that the interface style needed to be as inspirational as the magazine. The photography and imagery needed to be just as impressive and trendy. Our aim was to make the site contemporary and progressive with a clean, simple and bold look so as to echo what is done on the print side," says Whitehouse.

The web presence is not just about design and encompasses a sophisticated system giving the community more control with little to no restrictions on image size. NATIVE also incorporated a photo-tagging system where users can tag images with prices, names of retailers and galleries, and more.

Since the launch of www.visi.co.za visitors have flocked to the new site and have deepened their relationship with the brand, taking advantage of the new functionality. The Covet section in particular has over 1500 unique users.

The new website has yielded some excellent results to date, including:

a 70% leap in page impressions

a 57% jump in average time on site

a 37% increase in Facebook fans

over 1500 unique Covetor profiles

The website and I-Phone application are contenders in this year's Loerie Awards and have already attracted significant media attention.

LEGAL DISCLAIMER: This Message Board accepts no liability of legal consequences that arise from the Message Boards (e.g. defamation, slander, or other such crimes). All posted messages are the sole property of their respective authors. The maintainer does retain the right to remove any message posts for whatever reasons. People that post messages to this forum are not to libel/slander nor in any other way depict a company, entity, individual(s), or service in a false light; should they do so, the legal consequences are theirs alone. Bizcommunity.com will disclose authors' IP addresses to authorities if compelled to do so by a court of law.